I would like to take a minute and thank all of my fellow UPSers who have served our country in the military. Tomorrow marks a day when we need to remember the way too many young people who have gave the ultimate sacrifice in defending this country. Memorial Day is not just about taking a day off work and drinking a lot of beer around the grill.
I have never been in the military. I wore an JROTC Army uniform for a year back in 1973 which was my sophomore year in High School. That in no way could ever compare to the sacrifices that so many have made. I grew up the son of a WW2 vet. My dad carried a Browning Automatic Rifle through the Po River Valley in Italy back when he was just a kid barely out of High School. When the European War ended, he was sent to Japan as part of a Malaria Survey Team. He helped liberate POWS out of Japan (including General Wainwright) and was in a place called Hiroshima shortly about the time the surrender document was signed on the deck of the USS Missouri.
I had uncles over there as well. Uncle Ben was in the Third Army at the Battle of the Bulge and hated General Patton's guts. Uncle Coney was a bombardier in a B-29 bomber in the Pacific. I have one uncle still alive today. Uncle Billy was a young, red-headed Marine on Saipan and some other stinking island called Iwo Jima. Let's not forget the women at home either. My grandmother used to run a cafeteria at Fulton County HS and take my aunt to work with her to her second job at the Bell Aircraft Plant building B-29 bombers.
These were my role models as I grew up. They would only talk about the places they had been to. They would never talk about the horrors of war they experienced as young men. And some of these men had emotional problems the rest of their lives as they tried to forget. The WW2 Vets left are in their eighties now. The Korean War guys are in their seventies, and the Viet Nam Vets are not too far behind.
In closing, I hope that tomorrow everyone will remember people like these and all that have served in the many conflicts since. As Americans, we need to honor these people and respect what they did. And we should never forget.
I have never been in the military. I wore an JROTC Army uniform for a year back in 1973 which was my sophomore year in High School. That in no way could ever compare to the sacrifices that so many have made. I grew up the son of a WW2 vet. My dad carried a Browning Automatic Rifle through the Po River Valley in Italy back when he was just a kid barely out of High School. When the European War ended, he was sent to Japan as part of a Malaria Survey Team. He helped liberate POWS out of Japan (including General Wainwright) and was in a place called Hiroshima shortly about the time the surrender document was signed on the deck of the USS Missouri.
I had uncles over there as well. Uncle Ben was in the Third Army at the Battle of the Bulge and hated General Patton's guts. Uncle Coney was a bombardier in a B-29 bomber in the Pacific. I have one uncle still alive today. Uncle Billy was a young, red-headed Marine on Saipan and some other stinking island called Iwo Jima. Let's not forget the women at home either. My grandmother used to run a cafeteria at Fulton County HS and take my aunt to work with her to her second job at the Bell Aircraft Plant building B-29 bombers.
These were my role models as I grew up. They would only talk about the places they had been to. They would never talk about the horrors of war they experienced as young men. And some of these men had emotional problems the rest of their lives as they tried to forget. The WW2 Vets left are in their eighties now. The Korean War guys are in their seventies, and the Viet Nam Vets are not too far behind.
In closing, I hope that tomorrow everyone will remember people like these and all that have served in the many conflicts since. As Americans, we need to honor these people and respect what they did. And we should never forget.
t what label you use. I personally now liberal Christians and conservative atheists. I personally know republicans who anti-war and democrats that are NRA members! How does that figure in to your vision of liberals and conservatives? Figure that one out. 
